Gabby was eliminated from ‘Survivor: David vs. Goliath’ when her plan backfired after Christian played a hidden immunity idol on the Dec. 5 episode. We caught up with her EXCLUSIVELY about everything that went down!

It’s happened time and time again on Survivor: A strong alliance rides all the way to the end together, with one player perceived as the “mastermind” and the other seen as the “sidekick.” On the Dec. 5 episode of Survivor: David vs. Goliath, Gabby Pascuzzi realized that she was the “sidekick” in her alliance with Christian Hubicki, and organized a plan to vote him out. She filled fellow David tribe members Davie Rickenbacker and Nick Wilson in on the plan, along with Kara Kay and Alison Raybould. However, before tribal council, Nick told Angelina Keeley and Mike White what was going down, and they voted for Gabby. So, when Christian played his hidden immunity idol, Gabby was sent home.

“I did not want Nick to tell Mike and Angelina like he did. I purposely was like…please don’t tell them,” Gabby told HollywoodLife EXCLUSIVELY. “I also talked to them, and told them to vote for Alison and that I was voting for Alison. I did consider Christian was going to play the idol, which is why I wanted those three stray votes [Mike, Angelina and Christian’s] to go on Alison. That was my mistake in assuming that was the plan and that Mike and Angelina would not change it. Part of me was hoping we would totally blindside him, which is why I did it so early. I knew he was going to play the idol at final seven or six, so I purposely needed to do it when he least expected it.”

Unfortunately, Davie also had a part in Gabby’s plan falling apart, as he was the one who gave Christian a heads up that he was on the chopping block, leading him to play his idol. “It was frustrating to learn that Davie did that,” Gabby admitted. “I thought the most logical decision for everyone was to take Christian out because he was talked about as the number one threat in the game. That was my misread. Davie had saved Christian once before, so I don’t think I realized how loyal he was to saving Christian, perhaps at the expense of his own game. Davie was keeping Christian as a shield, but at some point, you gotta let that shield go. We’ve seen so many seasons where that threat weasels their way to the end and you regret it.”

When you were leaving the game, you made a point to profusely apologize to Christian. Why did you make sure to get that across? I wanted him to know it was purely a game move. It wasn’t a reflection on my personal relationship with him and my appreciation for the friendship we developed over 32 days. So it was partially to apologize for making him burn his idol and trying to take him out, but also hoping he would understand that it was just a game move.

Where do you guys stand now? He totally understood. That’s what I had been hoping for, too — that if it had worked and he was on the jury, I hoped he knew it was a game move and he would sort of be an advocate for me on the jury. He and I are totally fine now.

You cried a LOT this season – was that accurate, or was it just edited to look like it was happening more than it was? All the times I cried — that really happened! But you’re seeing a few minutes of a three day period in every episode. So if I’m crying for ten seconds or 20 seconds in the episode…there’s another 71 hours and 59 minutes where I’m not crying. I’m having fun and I’m laughing with people. I had really good friendships and we had so many god times out there. But it’s a real part of my personality. I think people think I was really weak or wanted to quit or that Christian was the reason I stayed. No, I cried to Christian because we were close allies and I knew I could confide in him. He’s who I felt safe crying to. That’s just how I am. I sometimes can’t control it.

Do you think it gave people a negative perception of you out there? Absolutely. I think I was trying to fight up against that perception all season. It’s hard when it’s part of your personality. It’s hard to change something about you. If I had gone to final tribal I would have pointed out that I was an emotional player, but I never made any strategic decisions based on emotional. There’s a difference between being emotional and crying to your confidant and making a rash decision, which I don’t think I ever did. The Christian vote was unemotional! An emotional decision would have been…Christian’s my friend I’m just going to go with him to the final three….then lose. So that was my chance to show that not only am I not an emotional strategist, but I know how to make rational decisions that are good for my game.